The rowdy Pea Ridge student section went silent each time senior guard Hayden Holtgrewe stepped to the free-throw line.
Three times Holtgrewe went to the line, and he was almost perfect by knocking down five of six shots to help the Blackhawks claim a 55-49 win Friday against Bearden in the semifinals of the Battle at the Ridge tournament.
Friday was just Holtgrewe's second game of the season after a lengthy football playoff run. On Thursday his two 3-pointers helped jump-start a huge night for Pea Ridge from beyond the arc, hitting 17 in the win against the NWA Hornets. Against Bearden, the Blackhawks won it at the free-throw line.
"Free throws win games," said Blackhawk Trent Loyd. "There's two or three games where free throws determine the outcome and this was one of them. He stepped to the line, produced and I'm proud of him."
In the fourth quarter, clinging to a 1-point lead, the Blackhawks (4-1) made sure Holtgrewe had the ball in his hands to try and clinch the victory. Loyd called a timeout with 51.6 seconds left to draw up a play for Holtgrewe, one that resulted in a shooting foul on a drive.
The 6-foot-1-inch guard delivered, knocking down both free throws and extending his team's lead to 52-49.
"I just knew we were going to finish. That's what our motto is ... just finish the game," Holtgrewe said. "I knew we had to bear down on defense, get a couple stops. We're playing in our home gym, so I knew we had to get our crowd into it, and that's exactly what we did."
The student section roared as a blocked shot on the next Bears' possession resulted in a kickout pass to Holtgrewe who was fouled to stop the clock. The senior missed his first free-throw but drained the second to push the lead to four.
"Whenever my teammates trust me with the ball in my hands, they always want to get it to me," Holtgrewe said. "They trust me to be the guy who goes and makes the plays at the end of the game."
A quick shot on the other end resulted in an airball, and the Blackhawks corralled the board. As it often did in that final minute, the ball found its way to Holtgrewe who was fouled a third time.
The guard blocked out the pressure to sink both shots to seal the deal, and the silence was quickly drowned out in a roar from The Nest, Pea Ridge's student section.
"I just 'cleared the mechanism', as my dad says, took a deep breath, and knocked both shots down for my team," Holtgrewe said. "My team came up and told me I was going to knock them down, so it gave me confidence."
Holtgrewe led a balanced scoresheet for Pea Ridge with 19 points. Kobe Rose added 15 and Nick Coble 12. Tyler Berry led all scorers with 20 for Bearden.
"He put us on his back down the stretch on that one," Loyd said. "Couldn't be more proud of him."
Sports on 12/13/2017